Stoughton man charged with ramming truck into cop held

UPDATED 4:26 PM EST Jan 30, 2013

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -

A Bridgewater man charged with ramming his pickup into a state police cruiser in Avon was ordered held in jail until trial at a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday in Stoughton District Court, the Enterprise reported.

Last week, Gene Guilbault, 48, a former Avon police officer, pleaded not guilty in Stoughton District Court to six charges in the Jan. 23 incident, including assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to stop for a police officer.

Guilbault is a former corrections officer who was on the Avon police force from 1993 until 2006, when he resigned.

On Wednesday, Stoughton District Court Judge Richard Savignano presided over a dangerousness hearing and ordered Guilbault held until his trial.

Authorities said Guilbault is licensed to own 43 firearms, of which five are still missing, authorities said on Wednesday.

His lawyer has said Guilbault has substance abuse issues and suffers from depression and stress due to a traumatic incident he witnessed as a police officer. The attorney also has said her client had never been in trouble with the law before.

On the night of Jan. 23, Guilbault was lying in a bedroom closet at his home, when he and his wife argued and he put the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth, she wrote in a request for a restraining order, which was granted.

“I then jumped on his back to wrestle it away from his mouth,” she wrote in the restraining order request. She told him she was leaving with their daughter.

Gene Guilbault fled and called his brother, Charles, currently an Avon police officer, the prosecutor said in court last week. He had a 9mm pistol with him but dropped that off at his mother’s home in Avon.

Charles Guilbault agreed to meet his brother in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot at 600 Page St. The store was closed at the time of the 10:20 p.m. incident.

Charles Guilbault called state police as backup because he was concerned about his brother’s mental state. In the parking lot, the two men talked, with Gene Guilbault getting more and more agitated.

Guilbault got back in his blue pickup truck and drove at a state trooper who was standing with his gun drawn, then hit a cruiser at a high rate of speed, causing the officers to fire to avoid a more serious accident, the prosecutor said.

His lawyer has said the state police fired first, and he struck the cruiser after being hit in the leg.

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